Miranda (novel)

{{Short description|1924 novel by Antoni Lange}} {{Infobox book | name = Miranda | title_orig = | translator = | image = Miranda Lange.JPG | caption = Cover for "Miranda" from a 1984 edition | author = Antoni Lange | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Poland | language = Polish | series = | subject = | genre = | publisher = | pub_date = 1924 | english_pub_date = 1968 | media_type = Novel | pages = | isbn = | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}

'''''Miranda''''' is a novel written by Antoni Lange in 1924. It was the last great work of Lange before he died {{Citation needed|date=October 2007}}, and his most famous book today. It is said that ''Miranda'' is an "occultic fiction"<ref name=Niewiadomski>A. Niewiadomski, W kręgu fantazji Antoniego Langego, w: A. Lange, Miranda i inne opowiadania, Warszawa 1987, p. 227</ref> and a "romance ranked to a philosophical treaty".<ref name=Niewiadomski/> The novel is also known as "novelty writing" which conciliates dystopia and utopia.<ref>A. Smuszkiewicz, Zaczarowana gra. Zarys dziejów polskiej fantastyki naukowej, Poznań 1982, p. 141</ref> It is a matter of opinion to classify the novel to modernism or interwar period.

==Explanation of the novel's title== The title of the novel refers to the person of Miranda from Shakespeare's play called ''The Tempest''. ''Miranda'' is also full of allusions to many classics such as: ''Men Like Gods'' by H. G. Wells, ''The City of the Sun'' by Tommaso Campanella, ''Lenore'' by Edgar Allan Poe, ''Genezis z Ducha'' by Juliusz Słowacki, poems by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, writings of Friedrich Nietzsche (criticism of concept of the Übermensch), Arthur Schopenhauer, Plato and Sanskrit epics of ancient India.

==Plot summary== The novel tells about ideal civilisation of powerful mages which have developed paranormal skills like telepathy, levitation and mediumism. The Brahmins value anarchy, freedom, peace, free love and anti-work. Their country is organized by Ministry of Love, Ministry of Power and Ministry of Wisdom, and they use a strange substance classified as Nivridium in order to their self-perfect idea. The main plot is the history of love of Polish emigrant Jan Podobłoczny (Lange's own ''porte-parole'') to the materialization of an ideal woman named Damayanti. A tragic end of their romance comes from clash between physical and spiritual sides of human existence. In the last chapter of the novel, Damayanti sacrifices her body in order to let her spirit fly to higher stage of consciousness.

Miranda is a Scottish spiritual medium, who lives in Warsaw. She can contact the soul of Damayanti and materialize the mysterious person of Lenore, who meets Jan Podobłoczny when he is close his death. In the moment when Damayanti dies, Miranda disappears.

==Publication history== The novel was translated into English (in 1968), French, Spanish and Italian.

==References== <references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miranda (Novel)}} Category:1924 novels Category:Novels set in Warsaw Category:20th-century Polish novels Category:Polish speculative fiction novels